Cheese Crackers
by Alactricity
Summary: Feeling grateful for Carter's cheese crackers,  which, really, saved not only her life but the lives of the innocent people who would have died in the tsunami wave her hungry-stomach-earthquake could have caused,  Sadie attempts to console him about Zia.


A/N: Um. Don't hate me? I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but I had absolutely no idea what to write these past few weeks, and zero inspiration. Then I read a one-shot where Carter and Sadie had a heart-to-heart and wanted to give it a go, but make it believable, and after three or four tries, here it is. I'm warning you now though, it isn't much, nor is it very long. It kind of sucks. If anyone has any requests for a one-shot though, I'm all ears! I love requests. And I'm really, really sorry this sucks, but try and enjoy anyways.

This disclaimer clearly states I own nothing.

Cheese Crackers

Sadie was hungry. Her stomach kept making gurgling noises and causing mini-earthquakes, which would cause tsunami waves, which would eventually crash into Hawaii or Australia or some other place as a 60-foot massive wave and kill thousands and cause millions in damage and it would be all because she was bloody hungry and had nothing to eat.

"I'm sorry, stomach!" Sadie whispered to her protesting abdomen, patting it gently. "I'll get you some food even if I have to feed you Carter."

"Hey!" A voice said from somewhere in the darkness; Sadie jumped a foot in the air and almost crashed into the marble island in the middle of the kitchen. "No you won't. I'm hungry too but you don't see me promising my stomach the meat and bones of my only sister."

Recognizing the voice, Sadie flipped on the light switch so she could glare at Carter. Bright yellow light immediately flooded the dark kitchen and she had to glare though half-lidded eyes. "Shut up Carter. I was joking. I would never give my stomach something so awful and gross."

Choosing to ignore her comment, because he was the mature older brother and that's what mature older brothers did, he got up from his seat in the dining room and strode over to the kitchen before opening the pantry door. "I think there might be some cereal."

"We have no milk."

"Ummm..." There was the sound of rustling bags and then a small "ah-ha!" before Carter re-appeared. "I know it's not really healthy food but it's the best I've got." He held up a bright orange bag of flaming Cheetos. Sadie cheered.

"I knew there was a reason I wasn't feeding you to my stomach!" She ripped the bag from his hands before he got the chance to have any and greedily stuffed a handful in her mouth. A moment later her nose scrunched up in disgust and she spat her half-chewed Cheetos into the bag.

"Ew, Sadie, gross!" Carter complained. "I was going to have some of those!"

Rinsing her mouth out with a cup of water, she swished it around before spitting that out too. "Trust me, you don't want any. They were stale."

"Darn." Disappearing into the pantry again, Sadie made a few more disgusted-eww-so-so-so-gross noises before her stomach started groaning again.

"Hurry up in there," Sadie said after a few minutes of searching. "I'm starving to death over here."

Empty handed, Carter returned. He shrugged apologetically. "Sorry, couldn't find anything besides some moldy bread and candy wrappers."

Sadie let out a deep groan and dramatically fell to the ground. "Nooooooo! I've survived demon monsters and I'm going to die of hunger? Oh, the world is cruel."

"If you're that hungry... well, I think I have some cheese crackers upstairs in my room... on my bedside table, second drawer."

Bounding up the stairs and tearing through Carter's drawers not even ten seconds later, Sadie moaned in relief when she saw a package of cheese crackers, right next to three packs of peanut butter crackers. Taking two, (what? She was really, really hungry) she took the stairs with slightly more caution then before, hopping up on the island counter and hungrily tearing into her meal.

"You've been holding out on me," Sadie admonished, breaking a cracker in half before tossing the other half to Carter, who caught it with surprise.

He shrugged. "I forgot I had them there, to be honest."

The sound of two hungry kids eating crunchy crackers echoed around the house for several minutes; Sadie licked her fingers and Carter brushed crumbs off his bamboo-fabric pajama pants (something that was a lot softer then it sounded).

"How long have you been down here anyways?" Sadie asked curiously.

"Umm. A few hours, maybe longer." He admitted sheepishly.

Sadie gave him a funny look. "What have you been doing? Eating all the food?"

"No. Just... thinking, I guess. Wasn't doing much. I washed the dishes though."

Sadie wiped off her palms and crinkled the cellophane wrapper into a ball before tossing it into the garbage. "Don't think I'm going to offer to unload the dishwasher now," She warned him.

"I think I know you better than that," Carter said with a slight roll of his eyes. "Why'd you come down?"

"I got so hungry my stomach woke me up. Stop changing the subject. How could you possibly have sat down, on a not even comfortable kitchen chair, for hours, with nothing to do?"

"Well I did sit on the couch at one point..."

"Oh sod off, Carter, I'm being serious here." Sadie said threateningly, pointing her staff at his face; she never went anywhere without it, ever.

"You're going to laugh at me if I tell you." Carter protested weakly, his face propped up on his hand.

Sadie was quiet for a long moment before she took a deep breath and made a pained face, as if what she was about to say was physically hurting her. "Carter... what's a sister if not someone who you can talk to without fear of judgment?"

He gave her an incredulous look; Sadie didn't blame him. "What? Where did you get that line from, a Hallmark Card?"

Sadie lifted her staff menacingly and swiped at Carter's hand, bursting into peals of laughter when he face planted on the kitchen table. "That was for being a jerk, you jerk. I was trying to be nice!"

Carter glared at her. The sight was so foreign that it made Sadie break out into laughter once more. "Ha ha ha! Did you see your face? You should have seen your face, it was hilarious! You looked like you were constipated! Man, you suck at glaring." Making a point of wiping at her eyes, she smirked at him. "That was funny."

"I get it," Carter mumbled. "Hilarious."

"What's wrong with you?" Sadie demanded. "You're acting all mysterious and weird and un-Carterlike."

"I told you," He said. "I don't want to talk about it."

Sadie rolled her eyes and tucked a piece of hair that was dyed dark blue behind her ear. "Let me guess. It's Zia, isn't it?" The wide-eyed look Carter gave her was enough to make her sure that Zia was the topic on his mind. "Look, Carter. About Zia... you couldn't have known."

"But I should have."

"There was no way you could have known! Nobody knew, not even Desjardins - I know the guy is a creep but he's an ace at magic, you have to admit. I don't even know what you're blaming yourself for; nothing happened to her."

"Nothing happened to her?" Carter exploded; Sadie almost choked at the unusually angry look on his face. It was kind of scary. "We don't know where she is, or if she has any memory of what happened, or if she's even alive! She could be dead for all we know! Nobody has seen hide nor hair of her and it's been a month. And you know what the really messed up part is? I liked her! I actually had a - a crush on a clay statue! Have a crush. Ugh, I don't even know anymore." He buried his head in his hands and didn't move.

Sadie was speechless. She'd had no idea it was bothering him this much. Sure, she knew he thought about Zia everyday and wouldn't rest until he found her, but this... he sounded so tortured. It was something no person should ever sound like, Sadie decided. "Carter, this is bollocks. You know she's not dead. Iskandar would have seen to it that she was safe."

"We don't know anything," He muttered darkly.

"Carter, shut up," Sadie snapped. How was she supposed to... comfort him, ugh... if he wouldn't even listen? "Zia is alive. I know it and you know it and everyone else knows it. We just don't know where she is. And she has to have some recollection of what happened, right? And even if she doesn't - if she liked you the first time around she'll love you the second. Oh, oh, remember how that Clay-ia said that Zia would like going to the mall? That means she was in contact with her, or at least had her memories. And just really, Carter, you need to stop beating yourself up over this! The past is the past and you can't do anything to change that, and I _know_ it sucks, but that's the way life is. Besides, it's only been a month. _We will find her_, savvy? I know we will. It's what we do."

Carter lifted his head up from his hands and looked at her, her final, dramatic words hanging in the empty silence that followed. Sadie fidgeted uncomfortably. Carter looked at her some more. Sadie tried to get some of the mashed up crackers out of her teeth. Carter continued to stare at her. Sadie was about to open her mouth and ask Carter if something was wrong with him when his face split into a wide grin, and before Sadie could stop him, he'd gathered her up in a hug.

"Gross, Carter! Get off me!" Sadie squealed, her hands dangling at her sides like a wooden board as he continued to hug her.

Ruffling her hair fondly, Carter stepped back and squeezed her shoulders to make up for the lack of hug. "I knew you weren't so tough after all," he teased. "You're just a big soft marshmallow underneath all that mean." He poked her stomach.

Sadie swatted his head and jumped back up on the island. "God, Carter, you dope, you act like I just saved a drowning puppy or something. I was just telling the truth, stop being an idiot."

"You know you love me!" He ruffled her hair one more time ("Hey! Get your hands off me!") before turning off the kitchen light and heading up the stairs, two at a time. "Night sis!"

For several minutes, Sadie sat in the darkness, arms out behind her, trying to make heads and tails of what just happened. Just because she had been nice didn't mean she liked Carter or anything. No way. She only put up with him because he was her brother, not because she enjoyed hanging around him. That was absurd.

Rubbing at her eyes, she too walked upstairs to her bedroom, stomach now full and feeling overall pleased with herself. Flopping onto her bed, Sadie reached blindly for the lamp switch. She felt something crinkle underneath her fingers; she paused and slowly lifted her head up to see what she was holding.

Crackers. She was holding a pack of cheese bloody crackers. Despite herself, she laughed. Carter was such an idiot.

-x-

Eww… Too fluffy? OOC? Just plain awful? Let me know through a review, thanks for reading!


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